


Ryder Records (Excerpts)

by KeJae



Series: Ryder Series [2]
Category: Chuck (TV), White Collar
Genre: Gen, non-explicit references to child harm (reason for drastic efforts to hide and protect children)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-03
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-11 13:30:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 22,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2070036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeJae/pseuds/KeJae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The excerpts from "Ryders versus The Antagonist."</p><p>Disclaimers and credits are the same as on the main story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Excerpt 1 - Mozzie's Story

*******

An additional scene to chapter 7 in Zach's perspective. (Some details may be a bit sketchy as sources varied the information). The truth about Mozzie finally comes out.

*******

_Recently, he received a message from Mr. Jeffries. There have been people poking around and asking him about Mozzie. They have a story about a baby boy, of Mozzie's description, going missing a long time ago. New evidence had surfaced in the last few years allowing the trail to finally be connected from DC to Detroit, and the trail had gone cold again in the area. The theory was that the abductors had decided to abandon the baby and maybe he was left at the orphanage. Nothing was confirmed yet, but for Mozzie the idea that he wasn't abandoned was new. He now had hope that his parents were out there looking for him, and had been all along only to be stymied by his abductors skills of disappearing._

Mozzie's story began in the year 1967 with details initially unknown. Some months later Mr. Jeffries discovered the baby abandoned and took him in at the group home where he raised him amongst the other homeless children. Being head master, it was up to Mr. Jeffries to ensure that the children were all taken care of, but there was something special about the bespectacled little boy he had found.

As Mozzie grew Mr. Jeffries took a shine to the kid and became his mentor as well as a surrogate father figure. He taught the boy to read and learn the wisdom of those who had gone before him in order to fight the battles he would inevitably face.

The first battle was the bullies on the playground who tended to attempt to take advantage of Mozzie due to his small stature and thick glasses. Learning from books, Mozzie conned and out smarted the bullies into leaving him alone while turning them onto each other as combatants.

Wishing for Mozzie to have a home, Mr. Jeffries worked long and hard to find a suitable place for his young protégé. Eventually, he found it, and Mozzie was transferred to his new family. Although the new parents were happy to have a second son, the son was not happy to have a brother. Things came to an end when the son set Mozzie up for a crime that he didn't commit and fearing his new parents' reactions Mozzie ran away and began life on the streets.

There, Mozzie discovered his second battle, survival. As a twelve year old living on the streets of Detroit he had to be creative. After one job fell through Mozzie moved on to create his own business. Deciding to use an adult as a patsy, he set up a con using an alias called the "Dentist of Detroit." For a time, Mozzie was successful and created quite the name for the Dentist. Then he pulled a five hundred thousand dollar scam on the Deluca family of the Detroit mob and his business fell apart.

Fleeing the mob's wrath, Mozzie moved to New York and recreated himself as a street con named Mozzie, but he did keep the connections to his past with his teddy bear, contact with Mr. Jeffries, and by occasionally funding the group home he grew up in.

After some years, Mozzie was working a Three Card Monte con in the park when he met my cousins playing Caffrey. Mozzie supposedly convinced Caffrey to be his front man and they teamed up to run a long con against Adler. When that fell apart they went on to have a global crime spree before Caffrey was arresting in New York. Once Caffrey was released to work for the FBI the partnership continued, only then they tended to work to catch other criminals while keeping any illicit activity hidden from the Feds.

Over the years Mozzie slowly opened up and revealed bits and pieces of his past. Those who played Caffrey kept a log of information to research and occasionally placed bets on details like where the name Mozzie came from.

Keeping an ear out for details, we hoped to eventually solve the mystery of who he was and where he came from, if only for the opportunity for him to know the truth. For us, family has always been a big part of our lives, and, since we created such a friendship (even under false pretenses), we wanted Mozzie to have a chance to connect to his biological family too.

My parents started to get particularly interested after we found out when Mozzie was abandoned. The day Mr. Jeffries found Mozzie was only a week after my parents' God-son went missing.

My parents had met the Wilsons when they were teamed up as a couples team for an NSA mission. The Wilsons were amazing at being inconspicuous in the field so they had the lead going in to retrieve some information from a large convention. My parents tended to stand out more so they created the distraction making sure that no one noticed when a drive of information was copied. Having pulled off a successful mission the two were teamed up several more times and became friends after a while.

When Noah Mozart Wilson was born his parents requested that my parents be his God-parents so that they could rest easy knowing that he would be taken care of if anything happened to them. Little did they know that even their precautions wouldn't be enough.

After a few months the Wilsons went on a mission and disappeared. It was assumed that their cover was blown so they were either killed or they went on the run and hid off grid unable to return without endangering Noah. When they didn't report in, a signal was sent to my parents that something had happened and they needed to get Noah.

My parents went to the daycare where Noah stayed when the Wilsons went on joint missions and my parents weren't able to take him. Upon arrival they checked in with the proprietor only to discover that he was already gone. A strange woman had shown up with papers detailing that it was alright for her to take legal custody of the baby. Taking him and his belonging she walked out to a vehicle and a man drove them away.

Based on the description of the woman, and what little a neighbor had seen of the man, it was assumed that they were the people that were the fixers for the organization the Wilsons were undercover in.

A man hunt was started and the two were caught trying sneak into Canada on the Montana border. Despite interrogations the fixers never admitted to having the baby or gave up the information as to what they had done with the baby. Over the years my parents continued to search for their lost God-son even as they watched over their lost son.

Combining the two stories of what had happened we were finally able to connect the dots. My parents were the people who visited Mr. Jeffries and compared information to try and gauge how likely it was that both boys were the same. With a promising outlook we managed to get a small hair sample from Mozzie after he fell asleep on the couch and did a test to compare it to the Wilson's genetics. We had a match.

Calling Mozzie, we set up a meeting at June's in the Caffrey apartment to provide a semi neutral, yet familiar, ground to have the discussion. (Neal had officially moved in but he vacated the premises for the evening). Nate was the face for the family as he was the one that Mozzie connected to best since he was the "honest one" who had actually grown up as Neal Bennett. Setting Mozzie down for this conversation was awkward at best, but Nate pushed on knowing that living a life in the dark was not something to enjoy (no matter how much Mozz might quote about not needing to know his biological heritage).

Getting started, Nate first introduced Mozzie to the pictures and information of his God-parents, Nicholas and Elizabeth Ryder. Then, he proceeded to fill him in on the details of the confirmation of his identity and worked his way back through history to the day of his birth. After completing the information on who Mozzie was, Nate gave him an envelope with his personal documents, his family information, and the information on our family as his God-family. Finally, as expected, Mozzie wished for time to verify and confirm the information he had been given. He headed home while Nate got together with the family to update us on how the meeting had gone.

The mystery of what had become of Noah Mozart Wilson was finally solved… he grew up to become Mozzie. As for his theory as to why he was abandoned, well it turned out to be right, except, his parents weren't from enemy organizations, they didn't abandon him, and they weren't from Detroit. However, they were spies. And what became of Mozzie?

Mozzie became rightful heir to his parent's safe houses, their savings/investments, and the family belongings. He settled in and began doing research into who his family was and began creating theories as to why they disappeared. After a meeting with Chuck, as the fellow son of spies who had abandoned him, he decided to look into the possibility of secret communication from his parents and spent several month going through everything in their belongings looking for coded information.

With scientific proof of his identity we gave our nameless asset a name, a history, and an "official position" as our asset. We kept his street identities separate and left him means of keeping his anonymity separate from official information, but we also gave him another official identity to open the door for a legit job connected (ironically enough) to the government.

All in all, Mozzie ended up with his real family links through heirlooms, his God-family who could share personal experiences with his parents, and the hope that maybe one day the mystery that surrounded his parents disappearance would be solved (perhaps in a similar method to the way Chuck's was?).


	2. Excerpt 2 - Don't Ask Don't Tell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chuck is on the floor of the Buy More and Morgan is handling something that is going on in the back (narrated by Chuck and third person perspective). This is an expansion of what was originally going to be the intro/conclusion for chapter 8. (I don't recommend doing the pranks, but these were some general ideas that the Buymorians have either done or would do).

Today the Buy More had very few customers in the store and they were mostly content to wander the isles at their own paces to determine what to purchase. The couple who wanted help was being assisted by Uncle Casey as they debated which model of grill to buy.

Judging by the general quiet on the floor it sounded like Morgan was going to have his hands filled with whatever the remainder of the employees had found to do in the back rooms. Knowing that those past escapades had included eating contests for the nasty stuff lost in the fridge, fight clubs with the possibility of legal ramifications, general bets to do questionable things, and other non-work place appropriate actions, I hoped to stay out of it.

In the past, it was Morgan who was often the ring leader in such plans and me who got stuck trying to bring order back before the trouble got out of hand. Then I got recruited to the CIA, and with my frequent absence in the work place the role of keeping order eventually fell to Morgan. After discovering my secret and joining my team Morgan has further matured to be the stable manager of the Buy More, a valued member of my team, and an even better friend than he had been before.

*******

_(Meanwhile in the back)._

Things started when Jeff and Lester got it into their heads to do something for the upcoming holiday of April Fool's Day. Petitioning for a store wide prank contest, they were disappointed when Morgan heard about their plans and refused to allow them to go through with them. He cited a series of past incidents where things have gotten out of hand and refused to take the risks.

Rebelling, Lester decided to prove that they could have a great prank competition without getting out of control. He got Jeff and Skip to compete while the rest of the employees chose their favorite participant to cheer on. The bets were place and the first round took off.

The first day Skip brought in Candy Apples that turned out to be onions but he lost the round to Jeff's air horn behind the door. Jeff didn't seem to be fazed by the almost acidic taste of the onion while Skip about jumped out of his skin when the horn went off as the door hit a trigger.

On the second day, things escalated as Skip gained the assistance of his team to tape Jeff to the wall after he fell asleep. In retaliation, Jeff's team decided to weld Skip's locker shut. This round almost made a draw except Skip gained a slight advantage because his prank didn't damage any property. (The point decided on as a tie breaker).

For the final day, things really got out of hand. Skip's team set several traps that would shoot silly string, drop toilet paper, or spill buckets of messy substances through the back employee areas. Jeff also set traps, but his were less messy and more on the dangerous side, with hot irons that heated up door knobs, glue on surfaces, and tacks in unpleasant places, like chairs. All bets were off after this particular series of traps started the war with tempers flaring in response to the mess and minor injuries.

With the outbreak of war, tactics changed to a Nerf War with each side endeavoring to shoot more of the other team than their neighbor. As munitions ran out they changed to throwing whatever came to hand and that inevitably turned into a food fight in the break room. (Needless to say, Morgan found an absolute mess when he went looking for his missing employees).

Opening the door to a goo covered room, Morgan exclaimed "What is going on back here!"

After Morgan's announced arrival the last few morsels flew before heads started hang or mouths began to defend.

Breaking through the noise Morgan pinpointed the ring leader and instructed Lester to explain how things got started.

Feeling the pressure Lester meekly answered. "Well… we wanted to prove that we could have a prank contest without getting out of hand…"

"So, you had a prank contest which got out of hand and proved my point." Morgan replied with an exasperated shake of his head.

Taking command, Morgan began getting the Buymorians back into working order by giving a rousing speech about their made up country of Buy-Moria and how they needed to work together in order to have a peaceful co-existence in the work place. Then, Morgan detailed the teams to get the mess cleaned up, the hazards removed, and to do whatever they needed to get cleaned up. For some that meant getting a spare uniform from their locker, while others needed minor first aid. Finally, as punishment, Morgan oversaw the work. As each person completed their assigned tasks, their work was inspected, and they were released to their tasks on the floor.

After the mess was resolved, the personal issues cleared up, and the back cleaned up to functioning order Morgan returned to the floor.

*******

While I wasn't paying attention another customer has entered the store and is now redirecting my thoughts to their incessant ringing of the bell. It is an unnecessary rudeness, since I am sitting right here, but I still plaster on a friendly smile and greet them. Their response is to slam a computer in front of me and demand that I fix it for them right now. Taking their information I promise to get to work on it personally and manage to keep my thoughts to myself. Since working for the CIA I have discovered that it is easier to deal with ten men pointing guns in my face than it is to deal with one rude, demanding customer.

As the customer leaves I am free to sigh in relief at their departure and check on the progress of the rest of the floor. A few more customers enter into the store I can see the employees trailing in from the back.

Coming in last Morgan gives me a look that says I don't want to know what they were doing, but that he'll tell me later, before he disappears back into his office shaking his head. It's amusing to see what he thinks of their antics now that he is on the mature side of things.

With the others taking care of the customers and it quickly clears out to just the couple Casey is still working with. Since there is nothing else to do, I might as well slip into the back and get this computer fixed before the other customer comes back.


	3. Excerpt 3 - Mozzie's Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mozzie tells what he saw while building a working relationship with Caffrey. This is from chapter 9.

Since I was twelve years old I have been living on my own and working cons to make a living. My first run was as the Dentist of Detroit where I pulled a five hundred thousand dollar scam on the Deluca family of the Detroit mob. After that fell apart, I moved on to New York and the mob made the Dentist of Detroit an uncatchable ghost of a criminal to hide the fact that they were taken for a spin by a twelve year old.

Years later, I was working a Three Card Monte con in the park and I met my future best friend. Neal did what most people find very difficult to impossible, he conned the con at his own con. That was impressive! Sending my young friend Cado to tale him, I wanted to check out this mystery man with the skill to beat me at my own game. He seemed young and was likely a rookie but it was possible that I had found the perfect front man.

When we first started, I was interested in taking his raw talent and making him my prodigy. I had plans for a long con against a local business man named Vincent Adler and now I had a front man to be on the inside. To fund our endeavor Neal was forging bonds for Atlantic Incorporated, but the funny thing was that I had never heard of them before. They were extremely new and not really on the market scene, it struck as a bit odd at the time, but I dismissed it having my eyes on the bigger prize.

As Neal worked his way closer to Adler, he became romantically interested in the assistant Kate Moreau. This was trouble from the beginning and eventually cost us the whole con. What puzzled me about the relationship though, was how he would change in his reaction to her from time to time. Usually he was flirty and romantic, but sometimes he seemed more like her brother pretending to be her boyfriend to keep someone from hitting on her. It was more than a little weird and made me wonder just how real their relationship was.

It turned out that Adler was a bigger con than the two of us combined as he pulled off his Ponzi scheme successfully and had completely disappeared leaving a shell shocked New York behind. With Adler out of the picture we lost everything we had invested into the con, still had our FBI shadow, and the only value we left with was Neal's relationship to Kate.

With almost nothing to lose Neal had decided to tell Kate who he really was and was pleasantly surprised when she accepted him and still wanted to be with him. She joined our crew and we got a functioning system put into place that was useful in pulling off a variety of cons. Everything was going well again until Neal tried to con Kate into going to Copenhagen with him to work with Alex on her plan to get the music box. Kate disappeared in a fury and Neal went alone to work with Alex.

Neal and I worked both separately and together for a couple of years. We traveled the world taking the FBI and other law enforcement on a merry old, wild goose chase while pulling off a myriad of heist and other crimes. When we worked together Neal always seemed to know what was going on locally on the official front while I had a really good link into the criminal side of things. It was the perfect team until we were back in New York and Kate came into the picture again.

A known snitch was spreading the word on the street where Kate was currently located. Feeling obligated to my friend, I told Neal what the word was and how unreliable the source. Still, like a love struck fool, he knowingly walked right into the trap and was arrested by the FBI suit known as Agent Burke. As I watched from the shadows Neal went through the process of the system and was eventually sentenced to four years in a maximum security prison.

This was a temporary end to our working partnership but I settled in close by and kept in touch. While I waited for his time to be up I ran some cons, caught up with old contacts in the area, and had several escape plans ready to put in motion.

In the last few months of his sentence Neal sent me a message to come and see him. I set up a meet as his lawyer with intentions of starting plans to get him back into society upon his release. Really, we were discussing his escape as Kate had suddenly broke up with him and left. Fearing something was wrong Neal wanted to get out and find Kate. There had always been questions on the validity of her emotions toward the relationship from my perspective, but as Neal had his heart set on her, I agreed to help.

After leaving the prison, I was seated in my taxi a crossed the street with a camera trying to get a feel for the comings and goings from the outside. That was when I saw a man, who looked a lot like Neal, leaving the prison and being picked up by a woman who looked a lot like Kate. Instinctually I took a series of pictures to study later and after their departure I returned to deciding which plan to go with for Neal's escape.

The plan was simple. Neal would grow out his hair and get the guards used to his scruffy appearance. We used credit card information that Neal had stolen from the wardens wife to buy a uniform to match the guards. The back of a toilet in a bathroom used by staff sufficed as a relatively safe stash for the shaving tools, uniform, and the fake ID that would be needed for the escape. When the time was right, and everything was ready, the plan was put into motion. First, Neal gained access to the bathroom again to clean up his appearance and change into the guard uniform. Then, he simply walked out the front door and stole a truck in the parking lot. Bouncing though a couple of looks and rides he made his way through the city to Kate's old apartment. There, he found nothing but a bottle which was the message of goodbye. Finally, the Suit had been alerted to Neal's escape so he showed up to arrest Neal again and we were right back to Neal being in prison with a four year sentence.

Since Kate was still missing, Neal called me in for another meeting. It turns out that he had made an arrangement to meet the Suit in a week so we had to get a plan in order quickly. Neal wanted to get out on a work release so that he would have a semblance of freedom to look for Kate. To do this, we had to have a plan that the Suit would be willing to go for, while not being too restrictive for our plans. The Suit made the meeting, heard the proposal, and left to think about it. For a while, I was unsure whether we had been successful or not as Neal continued to serve his time until after the first sentence was completed. Then Neal sent me word that Suit had agreed and he was out.

Within twelve hours of being out of prison Neal had met a charming woman named June Ellington. For her, Neal was a reminder of her late husband Byron, who had been a con as well, so she gave him all of her husband's old clothes and set up an arrangement for him to rent the rooftop apartment at her palatial home. This suited Neal and irked Agent Burke, which made the arrangement all the better.

My first visit was made when Neal was off working with the Suit. I found June to be a jewel. She welcomed me into her home as her friend and showed an interest in my life that very few had ever done. We hit it off immediately and she was a strong ally from the start.

After Neal had successfully helped to catch Curtis Hagen aka "The Dutchman" his partnership with the Fed was off to a shaky start. He worked cases from the office with Peter and we worked our own angles from his home on his personal time.

Since he was restrained to one location for four years I worked more closely with Neal than I ever had before, and there were more inconsistencies to be discovered. The discrepancies weren't generally all that big, but they puzzled me all the same.

First, I noticed that his routines would sometimes change. One day he would tie his tie using a particular technique, then the next he would do the same thing with a different flare, as if he changed his personality overnight. Usually, I would suspect that he was practicing his skills, using me like a perspective mark. When I asked about the possibility, he denied there being anything different to the way he always does things and claimed that he would never use me as a mark.

Then, his interests also changed from time to time. He would be quoting topics and literature one week, and the next he would have no interest in the very things he had a keen knowledge of the week prior.

Also, his learning curve was beyond normal. There was this case where Neal needed a history of computer engineering as well as extensive knowledge on art in order to create a complicated piece during an FBI undercover role. The night before he was to go in he left to see an old friend. He wouldn't tell me anything else, he just left. Then, I am told he walked into the place the next day like he owned it and went to work with the computer like they were his passion. How did he get advance computer engineering skills in one brief visit with an old friend?

To make matters worse, there were the times when he slipped. He would say something or get this look in his eye like he was a Fed himself. I thought this meant that he was spending way too much time working with the Feds, but how could I be sure when he had his mysteries even with me?

Finally, to top off all the things that made no sense it came out that he had a history with a bunch of spook suits from the CIA and the NSA. There was a gigantic portion of his life that he had never shared with any of us and I had a foreboding feeling that there was more to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let you all know, my family is going on our last (known) vacation of the year and I will be gone for nearly two weeks. When I get back I will post a chapter for the missed Sunday and then resume posting as usual the following Sunday. Please let me know what you all are thinking about the story as it will give me something to read and I will respond to any messages when I can.


	4. Excerpt 4 - Peter's Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's perspective of the time they were in the closet after he was shot and when Neal operated on him. (Additional Scene to chapter 11 part one the Forger Crew bust with inspiration still going to "No Thief Like Fear" by last1stnding. ). Also, the KRAEUTLER is a real gallery in NYC that I simply googled for setting purposes and "Houdini" is in reference to the named person and his ability to escape from bonds.

*******

We were taking on the Forger Crew of the Antagonist using an existing artist's identity of Nicholas and his assistant. My role was to lead our part of the deal by being Neal's assistant and front man while Neal played the secretive artist with a mysterious life, but amazing talent.

The unseen, inside Agent Neal Camden is actually the one who arranged for most of our case details. Apparently, he and Nicholas are cousins so he was able to set Neal and me up with everything we needed to fulfill our roles.

I was uneasy with the idea of Neal taking the identity of a real and famous artist, but with the case needing a name that could withstand the most in-depth scrutiny, I didn't have much of a choice.

******

On the day that we were to close the case I was walking into the warehouse and I had a gut instinct that things were not going to go well.

Neal was walking slightly behind me playing his role, and was carrying a bag of supplies slung over his shoulder, while I walked confidently in front of him. Feeling the same sense of trouble brewing in the air he stepped up beside me when we stopped.

Looking around I noticed how the crew were jittery and seemed to be standing a little too close for comfort. Going with my instinct, I decided to give the code word before something went wrong.

"Is there a problem? We have a showing at KRAEUTLER gallery this afternoon that we don't want to be late for."

Abruptly, the nearest guys yanked our arms behind our backs and bound us with zip ties while others shoved hoods over our heads. Tripping and stumbling we were quickly rushed away before being shoved into what felt like the back of a van.

After a decent drive, with enough turns to get us disoriented, we came to a stop. The sound of the doors opening was followed by rough hands grabbing my arm and forcing me to exit the vehicle.

There was another few minutes of forced walking, while I put my effort into not falling on my face, before I found myself being shoved into a chair. Straps were used to bind me in place while the hood remained intact to keep me from observing my surroundings.

Hearing Neal being put through the same treatment I knew he was nearby the entire time.

The footsteps of our captors recede as we were left alone in the room. Which meant that we immediately began working to free ourselves.

Neal had prepared for such a possible situation so he pulled a small blade out of his cuff to sever the zip tie on his wrists. With that gone, he was able to Houdini his way out of the straps and remove the hood with his freed hands. After he was free he went to work on my bonds.

Once we were both free, we checked the room for escape options and discovered the door to be our only out. Creeping down the hall we were dismayed to find armed guards rounding the corner and before we had time to react they raised their weapons and opened fire.

Feeling an impact, I found myself flying back into Neal. He caught me before dragging me into a closet that was next to us and blocked the door.

After Neal had laid me down on the floor the events began to catch up to me. I had been shot through the chest, I was locked in a closet of an unknown location, there were armed guards outside, Neal was my only help, and there was a very good chance that I wouldn't make it through this alive.

At first, I was not paying any attention to Neal's actions because I assumed that he was simply becoming familiar with our location and trying to do his best with what he had. Then, I noticed that he still had his bag and was rearranging the space like he was preparing for surgery. My concern grew when he gently lifted me up and moved me over onto the space that he had cleared and placed a protective sheet of plastic over. Blacking out I missed the next steps, but when my vision cleared he had a full surgical set up placed beside me, lights in strategic locations, and as sterile a work space as you can get in an old closet.

I made several incoherent protests as it looked more and more like Neal was going to be doing surgery on me. In response, he kept telling me what was wrong with me, what he needed to do to fix the problem, and how he was going to do that. Finally, I made the extra effort to get a more verbalized statement. Even though I know my words seemed rather garbled, due to blood loss and pain, Neal understood my concern that he appeared to be planning on removing the bullet himself.

"What are you doing Neal? You're not a doctor, why are you acting like your about to do surgery on me?" (It came out more like Wh't're you doing N'al? Y'r not doc, why you acting l'ke y'r 'bout to do surg'ry on me?).

His reply was, confusing in my state. "The Caffrey you think exists may not have medical training, but I do. Peter, I have been a doctor for fourteen years and have field experience with the Air Force as well as several government agencies in dealing with situations just like this. This is a full field surgical kit which contains everything I need to take care of you until you can reach a hospital. Combing my gear with my experience, you have nothing to worry about. In order for me to take care of you though, I need you to relax, let me put you under so that this won't hurt any more, and I promise that when you wake up you will be in a hospital with Elizabeth by your side."

When he said the words, my mind mostly focused on the part about waking up in the hospital with Elizabeth by my side and being okay, so I agreed to the surgery. As he proceeded to put me under, my mind briefly wondered who he was if he wasn't Neal, but then I felt the pain dulling and my vision blackened into oblivion.

*******

As promised, I woke up in the hospital with the sound of the medical equipment beeping in my ear. The closer I came to full consciousness the more I heard. First, was the sound of Elizabeth and Neal conversing near my hospital bed. A thought buzzed through my brain that something was not right about Neal, but it was gone before I could grasp what it was about. Then, I could hear general noises from the hall as I gained consciousness. Working up the strength I opened my eyes before quickly closing them with the bright light. Opening them again, I was able to look around and see Elizabeth turned and focusing on Neal as they discussed a local art show.

"El… Neal…"

Immediately, all attention was focused on me and two simultaneous exclamations of "Peter" greeted me. El told me how glad she was to see me awake while Neal smiled confidently at me and pushed the nurse call button.

Within a few minutes the nurse came in and began doing the preliminary check while we waited for my doctor. When he arrived, El and Neal were sent to the cafeteria for a coffee run to allow the medical staff easier means of asserting how I felt without me trying to be strong for them. After they were done, El and Neal were permitted back into the room while the doctor explained that I was doing just fine and I would probably be released within a week or two depending on how my body continued to respond to treatment.

It didn't take long for my fatigue to catch up with me so they told me to rest and I felt my eyes drifting shut while my mind settle into darkness again.

*******

Over the course of my hospital stay I had a lot of visitors. My team, some agents from the extended office, June, even Mozzie and the visiting Agents Carmichael and Casey put in brief visits.

During the early times that I was awake, Neal filled me in on the general details of what occurred for our rescue (leaving out a lot I later discovered), and El told me about my hospital stay up to when I woke up. When Jones and Diana visited I got some more of the bigger picture, including the hints to the fact that Neal was leaving out details, and I found myself rather confused.

(Since I had severe blood loss, extreme pain, and had been unconscious for several days, I had no memory of what occurred in the closet except Neal promising that I would be okay and wake up with El at my side).

When I was alone I spent a lot of time thinking. Many things weren't adding up with Neal of late. As I pondered them in my hospital bed I really began to wonder if perhaps… well maybe Neal Caffrey didn't exist at all and it was all just some kind of government conspiracy. Then I shook those thoughts away laughing to myself about how much I sounded like Mozzie, but still my gut told me that there was something to this theory.

The more I thought about everything, the more I found myself feeling confused after nearly everything in my life had twisted and turned into a practically unrecognizable mess of late. This caused me to feel frustrated as I felt that Neal linked closely to everything and I knew that he wasn't telling me much of anything. Finally, I felt hurt, almost betrayed (okay betrayed), that it looked like my best friend was messing with my life in such drastic ways while remaining unwilling to tell me what was going on.

*******

Due to my stressing over my life too much I found my hospital stay extended (which did not help me to calm down at all). Oddly enough, what did allow me to calm down was a dream the night after my stay was extended.

In my dream Neal visited my hospital room in the night and told me a lot of the answers I was looking for.

"Peter… are you awake… _sigh_. Well, you seem to be stressing out over things so I think it is time for me to tell you some of what you wish to know.

Starting from the beginning, I am your cousin, God-brother, and childhood best friend. Our current relationship as partners and friends is not a lie, it is just... portrayed in an alternate reality… I guess you could say. My purpose in being here is to catch the Antagonist, keeping you and a few other particular targets especially safe, and looking out for those drawn into the line of fire by simply doing their jobs. I haven't told you the details because when you learn them, your life will literally turn on its axis causing everything to change. You aren't ready for that yet, but we will begin breaking the news to you very soon.

As for our recent adventure in the closet… I wasn't lying to you when I claimed to be a doctor or said that I had government and military experience. When I finished medical school I worked at a hospital, found my lost cousin, started consulting for agencies… including you on several cases, joined the military, and eventually got nominated as the Director for a few large operations. I did your surgery and took care of you in the closet while an uncle took care of our problems waiting outside… he may have had some help with the armed guards but, if he did, he isn't talking. Between us we set up a signal alerting Jones of our location and our uncle guided the team to us using an old favorite of his with blinking the lights of the building.

That is the short of it, but we won't be filling you in on the rest of the details until you are ready so you need to relax in order to finish healing. You have a fever so I don't know how much of this you heard or will remember but I hope it is enough to get you to rest peacefully, if only until you are well enough to be the archeologist to dig for this information later. Doces soños Peter."

With that strange farewell he got up and left the room.

Once again, I got the feeling that he said really important things but I could quite grasp everything. Still, it was enough to do as he hoped because I knew enough to know that he gave me answers, he would again, and I got the impression that there was a good reason behind what he was doing.

*******

After I learned about Nick, the Caffrey Five, and regained my memory I was able to make sense of all of this (it helped that this is part of what Nick and I discussed that first night after I remembered).

Finally, I understood that he was protecting me when the bust went bad, he told me the truth because I needed to hear it, and he knew I wouldn't remember the truth in full for any length of time so he wasn't exactly divulging too much too quickly. What more could he have done under the circumstances?

**********

Doces soños – sweet dreams in Galician according to google translate (what I use as the secret code between Peter and Nick).

I'm back from my vacation (obviously ;) with this is in place of posting last Sunday and posting will come again on Sunday as usual :D


	5. Excerpt 5 - Missing Persons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lost Ones are given their missing person files to review for themselves. Excerpt from chapter 13 with Joe as the narrator.

*******

As Cade read over his file he noticed that Cade was the only part of his name listed, and then it was as his middle name instead of as his first. There was also a general description of his appearance being curly brown hair and aqua blue eyes.

Continuing to read he discovered that he had been three years old when he was abducted with his identical twin brother, Nick, who had protected him from physical harm before being left to die chained in the middle of a demolition sight. Meanwhile, he was transferred to "handlers" who raised him from there.

Initially he was shocked to see his own missing person file. As he read through the forms his real parents had filled out other emotions followed. He was confused as to why they would bother filling out the reports when they were filled out so scantly. Then he was angry that no one seemed to be looking for him anymore, really, that little effort appeared to have made in the first place. Finally he was very sorrowful to read that he had an older twin brother who may have given his life for him, a brother he didn't remember, and would likely never get the chance to know.

*******

Elizabeth read her file knowing that Elizabeth was her first name while her description was dark brown hair and blue eyes. With nothing new there, she moved on to the description of her abduction.

She had been getting ready to begin high school when her parents took her and her younger sister to visit their aunt and uncle. While there, Elizabeth had gone out with her cousin Nicholas Neal and his cousin Ryan to get ice cream cones a couple blocks down the street. It wasn't her first time meeting Ryan and she was described as having a crush on him so she had been happy to join the duo. On their return trip, a car veered off of the road hitting the distracted trio so that Nicholas Neal had been hurt, Ryan couldn't get back up fast enough, and Elizabeth had been taken before anyone else could realize that something was wrong.

For Elizabeth, she was surprised to see that she had a missing person file, but she focused more on reacting to what it contained. She was curious as to why the rest of her name was blank and who this Ryan she had had a crush on was, and reading the detailed results of the accident had tears streaming down her face.

*******

Peter was the most affected of the three when he discovered that he had a missing person file. All of his remembered life he had believed that he grew up with a simple life as the son of a brick layer, and now he discovers that everything he thought he knew was a lie.

Pushing that aside he opened the file. Reading his physical description of brown hair and eyes was expected, but his name was simply listed as a middle name of Peter, which left him wondering what the rest of it was.

Then he paled considerably as he read the details of his abduction. That night his parents had taken his aunt and uncle out since they were expecting twin girls soon, and his cousins were split up through the family, each staying with a relation that they had a special connection to for some one on one time. This meant that Peter was babysitting his six year old little cousin, God-brother, and best friend Neal (his father was Nick and his grandfather was Nicholas so he often went by Neal). The evening had been going fine as they threw a baseball around in the yard, had pizza, and played games, but before bed time a group of men by passed the security and made a surprise entrance taking Peter off guard. Peter was hit over the head knocking him unconscious and despite Neal's efforts to fight back, they were both taken. In an abandoned building the goons had set up a series of traps as a challenge and attempted to rouse Peter to play their games. When he was too groggy to get up, yet alone play, they decided to kill him. Fearing for his cousin's life Neal volunteered to run the challenge, only they had to leave Peter alone. Deciding that a six year old taking on their challenge would be funny, they complied, and sat back to watch. To their amazed annoyance, Neal made it through until the last trap had a hook which swung in and caught him. Leaving him for dead with cracks about him "Hanging around until the cops come" they took a horrified Peter and left. Getting rid of Peter was as easy as handing him over to some contacts and telling them who he was. These contacts had put him into the life he knew.

Finishing his file, Peter wondered if this is what Neal Caffrey had felt like when he discovered that he wasn't Danny Brooks and his father was a dirty cop. Only, he had the extra guilt that a boy who he didn't remember, but had been very close to him, may have died to give him a chance to survive.


	6. Excerpt 6 - After the Files

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the lost ones read through their files Nick has a message for them because he knows that they will be upset about this lost family member who nearly (technically) died to protect them. Excerpt from chapter 13 with Joe as the narrator.

_Still, there was a tension and sorrow emanating from all three of them that left them looking like the weight of the world was resting on their shoulders. They needed to know about Nick. Finally, I began to tell them about the person their files showed had been hurt each time one of them was taken. I told them what they needed to hear most of all, that he was alive and well._

At their disbelieving looks I turned my laptop around and showed them the email I had gotten before they arrived.

"After they have read their files, tell them that I am okay and that they have each talked to me at some point today. If they don't believe you, show them this and I will explain what happened to me after each of their abductions.

Cade, the buildings were blown up with me chained in the alley between. When you remember, the last time you knowingly saw me the debris was raining down as you were being drug away. What you didn't see, was the chimney that fell around me blocking the rest of the debris and leaving me safely inside. I was rescued, spent awhile in the hospital with Peter keeping me entertained, and recovered just fine.

Elizabeth, a few ribs were cracked with one broken and my ankle twisted from the impact of being clipped by the edge of the van and twisting as I was falling down. There was another of many trips to the hospital where Ryan kept me company while his own injuries healed, but I have lost nothing from those injuries. (It may surprise you when you get to know who Ryan is now).

Last, but certainly not least. Peter, that hook only went through my shoulder. I have quite the scar that has earned me the nick name of Sonny with certain people, but I healed fine and have retained full use of the connected arm (I can still throw a baseball just fine).

Although I see the three of you several times a week, sometimes almost daily, I still miss you. I see you, know who you are, and our history, but there is a recognition missing from your eyes when you look back. Don't worry about what happened then, please just focus on the future where you can come back with that recognition in your eyes again."

I could see the looks on their faces as they ran the message through its paces. It was obvious that they were about to discard it as untrue because none of them could remember talking to an identical version of Cade.

To prove the messages validity, I picked up a picture frame that was sitting amongst my belongings at the end of the table. Passing it to them I watched as they stared at a picture of three grown versions of Cade smiling for the camera.

Then to emphasize my point I passed them a file full of pictures. Each of the pictures was seemingly of a different person in the same pose, which confused them until I explained that all of them were Nicholas Neal. Since he had been targeted so many times growing up, he had learned to be a master of disguise to hide in plain sight, which is why they talked to him but didn't know it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry folks for being so late in posting, I have been remembering and forgetting to all day. I know this one is short, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.


	7. Excerpt 7 - Remembering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Excerpt from chapter 13. Joe tells about Will and Elizabeth remembering their missing pasts.

*******

Will remembered first, possibly because he had the least to remember, and jubilantly woke me up in the middle of the night to share his good news. I wouldn't have been too surprised to receive a call, but his knocking on my front door was a bit unexpected.

Letting him in, I received a bone crushing hug as he told me that he recognized me as his oldest brother Joseph Ryder instead of the JR or Joe I had been going by.

Smiling wider than my face could handle, I pulled him into another bone crushing hug while unsuccessfully fighting back the tears.

Hearing the commotion the rest of my house was soon awake and coming to investigate.

First, my wife Rebecca came in shushing us as the kids were asleep, but upon realizing that this was Will, not one of the other quads, she quickly joined our tear filled hug fest.

Next, my son Jacob was peaking around the corner to see what the excitement was about so I waved him in as well.

Finally, my twin girls came rubbing their eyes and dragging their favorite sleep companions behind them.

Picking them up, I introduced them to the long lost uncle they had heard so much about.

For a brief while the kids chattered at Will, each more eager than the last to fill him in on every detail of their lives that he had missed. Soon enough the excitement lost out to fatigue and their voices began to drift as they fell back asleep. My brother helped haul them back up to their beds and tuck them in before we went back downstairs to talk for a while longer.

Eventually the late hour caught up to us as well so we said our good nights with the promise to spend a lot of time catching up in the near future.

*******

Elizabeth was the second to remember. I had gotten one good night of sleep since Will's midnight reunion, only to get an early morning visit from Elizabeth and Peter.

Rebecca and I were getting the kids ready for the day when there was a knock on the door.

Heading down to answer it, I knew something was up because the knocking was to too loud and frequent to be just an ordinary visit.

Opening the door, I was once again embraced in a tear filled hug as Elizabeth threw her arms around my neck chattering about how she recognized me as well. While Peter stood by with an awkward expression on his face showing that he was obviously still blank on the past.

Welcoming them in, I introduced them to my family and offered breakfast since no one had eaten yet.

El quickly volunteered to cook so she and Rebecca took over the kitchen while the kids helped.

This left Peter and I to talk as he was a bit distressed by his past remaining a mystery while the others had been remembering little things since the Intersect was removed.

I reminded him that he had received a head injury just before the Intersect was uploaded, also he had the most to remember as he was the oldest when he was taken.

Nodding in agreement, but still disappointed, he gave a sigh of resignation and said that we might as well start getting to know each other anyway because apparently I was his cousin after all.

Grinning, I agreed and the two spent the rest of the day at my house.

*******

Setting up an additional meeting for Will and El, I called them into my office. We talked about how much they remembered, most of what had been missing, but they did still have a few holes of who was who.

Deciding they were far enough along I gave each of them a log-in and an address for the online chat site that the families had created to keep in touch.

Elizabeth remembered the code that was being used on the site so she was ready to dive into the people side where the others could introduce themselves.

Will on the other hand had been three so he didn't remember many of the family or the code, but as I was teaching him the code I figured the site was an opportunity for him to practice and get to know the families at the same time.


	8. Excerpt 8 - Hospital Happenings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first portion is an excerpt from chapter 8 with Chuck telling about going to see Nick in the hospital as Caffrey while the second part is an excerpt from chapter 14 where Jones is telling a little about what the others think about this meeting.

*******

That evening the call went around that Caffrey was awake and people would be given a little while to see him.

When Casey and I walked through the door of the hospital waiting room the White Collar crowd looked at us with disgust and someone said "Couldn't they wait to interrogate him?" We ignored them and I asked who was in to see him.

Jones was coming out and he said that Peter, El, Mozzie, and Diana were still in with Caffrey, but we could come in for a moment.

The looks we got as we walked into his room defined "If looks could kill," but when Caffrey looked up at us, and the grin we got went from ear to ear, we suddenly had questioning silence from the others.

"Hey Casey and look who else is here, Chuck, long time no see!"

"This is the longest round of hide and seek I have ever played! You know, since Peter never found us all that game technically never ended."

"You were the only one who wasn't found and I think that had something to do with you being abducted."

"Yeah, you might have a point there. Hey, sorry about what happened to you by the way."

"Eh time heals all wounds, besides we were the only three injured so at least no one else had to take anything."

Caffrey's voice was drifting so Casey and I told him to rest, we would be holding down the fort until he was ready to jump back into the fray. With a nod he went to sleep and we had to face the rest of the room.

Peter was the first one to question us with the expected "What happened to him?" question.

Casey and I exchanged a nervous look before saying that the attackers beat him up a little. No one believed us, but everyone was afraid to ask further into what we were hiding so it was dropped for the moment.

Before they could start an interrogation I gave them a few simple answers. "We grew up together, we were playing hide and seek when there was the attack, we went separate ways for our safety, and this was the first time we have seen each other in over twenty years." More details would be connected for them over time, but our real identities were still highly targeted and it was best if they remained secret until further notice.

They weren't happy to be left in the dark but were surprised to get much of any answer out of us. It was even more surprising to them when Casey settled in as his body guard while I asked Peter for Caffrey's personal affects in order to see what information I could garner off of them.

_ ******* _

_ Things started to get fishy when the CIA/NSA team of agents showed more concern for Neal than just another victim, then they went to visit him in the hospital, and not to interrogate him but for a visit.  _

When they walked in, the unanimous though in our minds was that they were a couple of spook suits who were present merely to solve a case and were heartless enough to interrogate Neal just hours after he regained consciousness (we had been influenced by Mozzie way too long), needless to say we weren't happy to see them in his hospital room.

Instead, they walked through the door and, on first look, Neal's face split into a huge grin while he greeted them by first names and picked up a conversation about some game of hide and seek with the allusion to a disastrous event that left him and those two agents hurt.

Listening from a crossed the room, we decided that maybe we should be looking a little closer into who these agents were and what kind of history Neal had with them.

Once Neal was asleep again, Peter tried to learn what had happened to him with little expectation of receiving the truth.

The two agents shared a glance, in obvious agreement to lie, and told us he was beaten up a little.

We hoped that was close to the truth, because we feared what truth they might be hiding if it wasn't.

Then Agent Carmichael surprised us when he gave us a few answers voluntarily. He kept them vague and short, so we were pretty sure that they were honest answers, which was a relief after all of the omissions and half-truths we had been working with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back checking my old stories for their rating settings, I noticed that this draft was never posted. So... rather delayed compared to the rest of the story, here it is.


	9. Excerpt 9 - Park Perplexities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This excerpt was pulled from chapter 14 with Jones narrating. It was inspired by "Intersect Files" chapter 4 "Doppelganger" by Aspen Starlight (I love this one-shot). I used the concept of "Neal Caffrey" in a park and getting to eat grass, but put my own twist on the scenario as well as doing a follow up scene in the office.

*******

Peter and I picked a Saturday to go for a run in the park so that we could discuss Neal, and Peter could vent some of his frustration about his continuous blank memory. Since it was out of Neal's radius we had not expected to meet him, but then, when had Neal fit our expectations anyway?

We had been running for a while when we came around a bend in the path and spotted a familiar figure randomly standing in the middle of the grass. Slowing as we approached, Neal turned around giving us a full view of his face. This brought us to a stop in front of him while Peter put on his paternal/handler stance with hands on his hips and the stern expression.

"Neal, what are you doing outside of your radius!"

Opening his eyes Neal said "Excuse me?"

Peter gave him his no nonsense look and responded "Stop playing games Neal, what are you doing outside of your radius?"

Neal looked confused for a moment. "You must have me confused for someone else. My name is Nate and I don't have a radius."

Not backing down Peter asked for confirmation.

With a sigh, Nate pulled out a badge showing that he was a DEA agent named Nathan Camden and pulled up his left pants leg to prove that he wasn't wearing an anklet.

Before Peter or I could react, three young children came running out of the surrounding shrubbery, taking advantage of Agent Camden's vulnerable position, to tackle him to the ground. Getting a face full off grass the agent came up spitting while pretending to be fending of wild ruffians.

Unable to help ourselves Peter and I were chuckling in amusement at the sight while Agent Camden told the kids that they had gotten him fair and square.

As they returned into the shrubs to prepare for another round, Agent Camden returned to his feet and nodded at us in turn. "If you'll excuse me Peter, Jones, I have three wild ruffians to keep entertained until their mom can relieve me of my post."

Saying our apologies, Peter returned his badge and we continued on our run.

As we began to think of the Neal mysteries again it suddenly dawned on us…we never told Agent Camden our names, so how did he know who we were and which was which? Before we could turn back to ask him our phones both went off with the call into the office as a case had come up.

*******

Meeting in the office lobby, Peter and I got into the elevator only to see Neal coming in behind us. Holding the door open for him, we couldn't resist the chance to see if he had any clues to our meeting his knowing look a-like in the park earlier.

Entering the elevator with only a basic good morning we could tell that he looked annoyed and appeared to be trying to remove something from his teeth by the way he was working his mouth.

Peter smiled and greeted him with "Do you still have some grass in your teeth bothering you Neal?"

Neal turned to look at us with a quizzical expression playing up the "I have no idea what you mean, why would you ask that?"

Chuckling again at the memory, I added "We saw you get a face full of grass at the park this morning when those kids tackled you. You must have missed a blade when you tried to clean out your teeth."

Continuing with the puzzle ploy, Neal told us that he had no idea what we were talking about. "I was in my apartment painting and you can pull up my tracking data to confirm that if you don't believe me."

Not convinced, we ran out of time as the elevator doors opened. Encouraging Neal to leave first we exited the elevator and didn't allow him to hang back to check his reflection and remove the grass.

With no other option, Neal resigned to his fate and walked into the office just ahead of us.

Diana greeted us cheerfully so Neal matched her with his usual megawatt smile. His effort to convince us that there was nothing in his teeth backfired as Dianna commented "Neal, what have you been eating? It looks like you have a blade of grass in your teeth."

Failing to hide our laughter at his bemused expression, Peter and I just stood there watching as the scene unfolded.

Giving us an amused, but confused, look Diana asked "What have I missed?"

Neal could only glare at us as he explained "Apparently they saw someone who looks like me get a face full of grass in the park this morning. Personally, I was home painting and Mozzie brought over a wheat grass sandwich that he wanted me to try. It wasn't bad so I ate it, but I got the call to come in and didn't get the chance to get that last piece out of my teeth."

Peter had calmed down so he parried that remark with "You had plenty of time to clean up your painting and get all dressed up, but you didn't have a few seconds to floss? Really Neal, I am not going to ask for an explanation because I know you'll just say 'not yet,' but someday soon we would really like a real answer as all of this is getting past tiring."

With the humor gone for the moment Peter left to set up the conference while Diana and I parted with "You have serious explaining to do" looks back at Neal.

The story spread through the office quickly and Neal faced several jokes of "Got grass in your teeth Caffrey?"


	10. Excerpt 10 - Office Pranks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This excerpt is from chapter 14 in Jones' point of view. Caffrey had just vanished and Shield had shown up as his temporary replacement. The office feels Neal is being forcefully replaced so they start playing pranks on Shield. (Not necessarily realistic for the group but a fun concept to play with anyway). Without further ado, one of my favorite excerpts :D

*******

  
Feeling like Neal was being forcefully replaced, no one was pleased, but what choice did we have? Unable to entirely set back and allow this, the office decided to make their displeasure known in a manner that wouldn't have repercussions.

Things started with little comments like "Neal's desk," small references that separated Shield as a temporary participant from the residing team, and Peter never called Shield his partner like he did Neal.

Watching how Shield treated Neal's stuff as if they were his own possessions sparked our second reaction. A few agents stayed late and removed all of Neal's possessions into a box which Peter took home to hold until Neal's return.

The next day Shield came into the office, took one look at Neal's desk, and walked back out with a smirk on his face. When he came back a little while later he had a box filled with his own possessions that he set up to replace Neal's belongings.

It seemed that he not only wasn't fazed by our actions, he thought it was amusing.

The third protest was to remind him that the desk wasn't his which led to a series of pranks (some got a little off course but were too fun to pass up).

On day one, he came into the office to find the desk securely wrapped in crime scene tape while other crime scene paraphernalia was spread a crossed the top making a bit of a mess for him to clean up.

His response was a report on who had done what based on finger prints, supplies used, and general personality traits. Unnerved by how accurate he was we decided to be more careful on the rest of our plans.

Day two, we rearranged the items in his drawers so nothing was where it was supposed to be. Then some tech savvy agents set up several pranks on his computer so that it had messages popping up randomly, the mouse wouldn't work, the keys were rearranged, as well as a few other clever pranks to annoy him. He responded with prank messages popping up on the computers for all of the agents involved.

Mine was the screen shot prank which meant that my screen only showed the message listing what we had done to him and the" I know you were involved Clinton" with a smiley face ending. It was designed for me to think that my computer had frozen, but I knew how it worked so I check that the recycle bin could still move before changing the screen image back to normal.

For the third day of pranks we took random things from his desk and left ransom notes with treasure hunt messages for him to follow. We also hid several remote controlled noise makers around his desk that we would randomly turn on and off as we pleased. Again, he seemed relatively unfazed as he simply solved the puzzles quickly and with keen hearing he discovered the noise makers with in a use or two.

As we were leaving the office we all found ourselves having to return to our desks for our wallets and keys because he had picked our pockets clean throughout the afternoon and left us ransom notes in exchange. Collecting our belongings we discovered our noise makers placed with the appropriate owner's belongings.

The final prank to his desk took a lot of planning and calling in several favors. We set finger print locks on all of the drawers, set up a retinal scanner to access the computer, and put everything on top of his desk into various kinds of lock boxes and mini safes.

No one ever figured out how he bypassed the retinal scan or finger print locks since they were set to Caffrey's scans, but he did, and removed them so that no one ever got the chance to discover his methods. As for the lock boxes and safes, we got to watch him break into them with Caffrey speed and finesse.

For days after the last desk prank we occasionally found cryptic messages warning us that pranks were going to be coming our way. We would take precautions having no idea what he was going to do to us, but nothing ever happened leaving us with the impression of the prank where the prank never comes.

Finally, our last prank got a reaction that ended the pranks.

Deciding that if Shield thought he was going to be replacing Neal then our prank should be something that would affect Neal. Choosing the tie as our point of attack we set up an arrangement that would cause Shield's tie to be damaged before someone would innocently offer their "spare tie" (a really horrid tie that would be a personal affront to Neal and had been purchased for this specific prank).

In essence, this would be to make the point that he may have taken Neal's desk, but he would never be Neal.

The morning we chose to complete our prank Peter and Shield were getting ready to meet a victim for a case. My conspirators set up the situation while I brought Shield into the trap. Once the mess had "accidentally" been spilled all over his tie and Shield was trying to clean it off we put the second part into play. Agent Blake was sitting nearby just happened to have a "spare tie" laying around and offered it up as consolation.

Shield responded in a very Caffreyesque manner complaining "Come on, I don't know how you can expect me to wear such a tie with this suit" and so on.

Surprising us all Peter distractedly responded "It's just a tie Caffrey. Cowboy up."

Suddenly Peter and the rest of us stopped to really look at Shield and except the hair being done different, the sunglasses firmly in place, and a few slight facial differences…we had Neal Caffrey standing before us in appearance, speech, and personality.

Completely flummoxed we simply stared while Shield gave up on the tie and rearranged his wardrobe to accommodate the tieless appearance seemingly oblivious to our baffled expressions.

Then someone's phone rang and we were released from our frozen state allowing for us to get back to work while Peter and Shield left for their meeting. The circumstances of the situation never left our minds though and Shield joined the realm of our Caffrey theories.


	11. Excerpt 11 - Puzzled Caffreys Puzzling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The extended version of the case in Chapter 15 told from Peter's perspective.

_*******_

_Getting serious, Shield told Peter that he would take care of distributing the Caffrey belongings back to their original owners as well as handle anything else Caffrey related that came up. "I am also not going to be going into detail on the Caffrey role, but we have plans to have some fun before we reveal everything in the very near future. Right now, there is a kidnapping case that needs attention so I recommend that everyone gets back to what you were doing before the series of interruptions occurred." As agents began to scatter he turned to Agent Rice "What about this kidnapping case?" She filled him in on the case, which was the random abduction of a person in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he was needed because the kidnapper said "Have Neal Caffrey on speed dial because starting tomorrow at ten the life of our victim will depend on it."_

Since the case wasn't expected to take off until the next day, Shield told the office to proceed as normal. The next morning we were all called in early to begin preparing for an unknown take down with all details still in question. We organized a communication network that would keep the Kidnapping team, White Collar, and the Caffrey crew all in touch and settled in to wait for the call.

At ten o'clock sharp the call came through saying that Caffrey had seven hours to play the game starting at an address in the suburbs an hour away. Once he arrived he would need to pass facial recognition software, a camera would ensure that he came alone, and there would be a piece of the puzzle waiting for him. After he solved that piece he would be led to another location and the treasure hunt would continue until he reached the solution which would tell us the location of the victim. If Caffrey showed up late, showed any sign of not being alone, or failed to solve the puzzle a bomb would go off killing the victim. The problem was that his odds of getting to all of the locations as well as solving the puzzle was likely to be impossible.

As soon as Shield heard the address he relayed the information to one of the agents playing Caffrey and left the office. Those of us who remained were tasked with analyzing the call to see if we could get an identity on the caller as well as any kind of a location as to where we could pick him up.

After forty five minutes we had a start but nothing conclusive enough to take any action. Then, one of the Caffreys came over the line asking us for assistance. He was on location and he was looking at a Picasso called "The Weeping Woman" and he needed help solving the clue so that he could get to the next location. Diana brought up a search to see what was going on in the city only to discover that there was a play called "La Llorona" that was currently showing on Broadway. The English translation of the plays name means "The Weeping woman" so we assumed that was the next location.

Jones led a team in pulling case files that had anything to do with "The Weeping Woman" or Broadway and cross referenced that with what little data we had collected from the call. This gave us the expectation that the puzzle was related to the arts and was being orchestrated by a person of intelligence that wanted revenge. Since Caffrey was the only person specifically targeted it was easy to assume that the perpetrator of the kidnapping was someone who had a problem with Caffrey, or chose him as the representative of the FBI to feel their rage at some perceived injustice (his being a consulting informant probably would add incentive in the second scenario). We had enough to compile a lengthy list of suspects, then all we had to do was narrow that list down.

The second communication came in after just twenty minutes so we assumed that this was the second Caffrey playing the role. Having arrived in Broadway he was searching the rooms looking for likely places to set up the location. Deciding the stage is what made Broadway famous he began searching only to find what he was looking for in one of the sets. This time the picture was a van Gogh painting of "Starry Night." Going with my gut, I went with the first place that came to mind and suggested looking at the planetarium.

Like with the previous pieces of information the teams in the office and I went to work using any links to the planetarium to further narrow down the list of suspects. Again we made progress, but we still had too many.

Things got suspicious when the third call came within half an hour after the second, and too soon for either Caffrey to reach the destination. Still, the voice that came through asking us about the third piece was definitely a Caffrey and he had passed the facial recognition so he had to be one of them somehow. (We asked Agent Rice how they were pulling things off but all she was aware of was that when Shield left he took Agent Will Ryder. How they were handling the situation with two or even four was a mystery to her as well). As he looked through the building he asked me what my gut had for me as to the location to save him the time of looking. Again, I spit out the first thing that my instinct said was likely to be right and told him to search in the theatre since it would be dark like night with the projector creating a starry sky. It turns out I was right again and the third picture was a Monet called "Water Lilies." There was no help needed in solving this one as the Caffreys already knew the answer since there was a show about Monet going on at the Met. Anticipating the possibility that something might be there, one of the Caffreys was already on site.

Going back into the restoration room he easily discovered picture number four. The picture was a Bondone called "Mourning of St. Francis." Following the St. Francis lead Jones came up with St. Francis College and guessed that the fine arts wing would probably be the best bet for the location of the fifth picture.

It only took forty minutes for the next call to come through letting us know that a Caffrey had reached the fifth picture. He informed us that there was a message, which he had decoded, that stated this was the last picture as the sixth location contained the hostage strapped to a bomb. Taking a look at the picture he said it was a Da Vinci and obviously the "Mona Lisa." Putting all of White Collar to research anything associated or possibly connected to the "Mona Lisa" we searched and found nothing that was an obvious connection or even a decent guess as to what location this could be pointing us to. Running out of ideas we were saved by the voice of Shield as he said that the "Mona Lisa" was loaned to the US by the French governments from the fall of 1962 to the spring of 1963. It was displayed in New York City for an extended period of time in public secure locations. Since these were not likely to be a safe option to secrete a hostage with a bomb he continued to assume that the location was more likely a warehouse which had been used to store the painting briefly during a delay before it was transferred to DC.

In no time one of the Caffreys arrived at the warehouse in question. He was wearing a pinhole camera and carrying a bag of equipment as he began to make entry. Walking up to the door there was a camera that showed him arriving alone and opening the door. In the entrance he was greeted by a system that scanned his face and confirmed him to be Caffrey there in person. After he passed the test a door was electronically unlocked and popped open telling him which direction to go. Passing through the doorway he discovered that the warehouse had been filled in to be a maze with traps around every corner. With the clock ticking and a life at stake he began to methodically work his way through the paths. Defusing the first few traps he discovered that some were more dangerous than others and assumed that the greater danger would likely lead him to the victim. Each new direction brought an increase in danger that had the office silently listening with bated breath as any moment could be the last for those in the building if a single trap was not diffused correctly. Time passed very slowly but eventually Caffrey made it to the victim and started to work on the bomb. His first step was to poke through an air tight seal with a long thin vacuum tube to carefully suck out the explosive powder that posed the first threat. With the bomb safe to remove the glass front he went on to the next level of the threat. There were two chemicals set to mix and cause a toxic explosion so he cautiously poured more chemicals in with each of them to dilute them and remove the threat of a chemical reaction. Finally he lifted up the bottom of the bomb to see an additional puzzle. Solving it quickly he announced that the victim was clear and he knew exactly who was behind everything.

When Shield was a kid, he and Agent Neal Camden had been abducted by a goon who was hired through the Organized Crime division of the Antagonist. In escaping, Shield had set up a puzzle attached to a trap with Neal's help. In order to get to the boys, the goon had to solve the puzzle and trigger the trap which set off a smoke bomb and provided cover for the two boys to run out of the building. They disappeared into the surrounding so they were never caught. As Caffrey, Neal had seen this goon again when he and I arrested him for his involvement in a mortgage fraud case. Finally, the goon had been released from prison recently after serving his sentence. With his means of income gone after the arrest of his crew there was nowhere for him to get money. Deciding to go for revenge the man targeted the FBI who had taken away his income, Caffrey who was the "snitch" who sold him out when he went to prison, and the puzzle for the "two brats" who used it to get away which caused him to be punished by the bosses. The evidence was circumstantial at best, but being able to get ahold of the pictures and trace the signal back on the cameras we were able to confirm the theory enough to get a warrant. Collecting the solid evidence we needed, an arrest was made, the warehouse and other sites cleaned up, and the victim returned safely home allowing us to mark the case as closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I researched to find "La Llorona" (which is a real play) and the details about the "Mona Lisa being on loan to the USA (the time and with NY and DC places was real but the rest I made up). Otherwise I just looked up famous artists, picked in a general order from the top of a list on a site, looked up what they were famous for, and finished with a search (or easy connection) to New York. The Met and the Planetarium were off the top of my head while the college and others took google.
> 
> Also the bomb is based off of a MacGyver episode "Countdown."


	12. Excerpt 12 - Random Acquaintance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter shares an excerpt from Chapter 15 where Nick and the quads are showing him how they have been in his life playing random roles all along.

*******

Here lately I have been having unlikely run-ins with people from my past since I was abducted.

First, there was the kid whose aunt and uncle lived just up the street from me. Every summer I lived at home or visited after going to college he just happened to be there for at least a weeks-worth of time. When I went to the park to play baseball with the neighborhood kids he would follow me and request to play along. Since he was so much younger than the rest of us he would get the task of fetching the ball out of the field next to the park or the pond further over to the side. In order to let him have his involvement, or to get rid of him for a bit in some cases, we would occasionally hit the ball purposefully into his assigned retrieval areas. He would happily dive in the pond or run a crossed the field to retrieve that ball while we pulled out another to continue playing. A few times when he followed me around my yard at home and volunteered to help me with my chores I really wondered what was up with the kid. After all, what kid was so desperate for company that they would fetch baseballs and assist with chores just to be around someone…yet alone me, a total stranger?

When I recently met the kid I was out running errands and had briefly decided to get a cup of coffee. As I was walking out I found myself being haled over to a table where a young man who had a familiar appearance similar to Neal Caffrey was seated. He called me by name and at my puzzled unrecognizing expression he introduced himself as Gregory Roberts. "You remember the kid you used to send diving for baseballs to get rid of him" (with a "Don't deny it" expression). Sheepishly, I couldn't help but chuckle a little as I asked "So you caught on to that huh." Grinning in reply, he nodded "It was an obvious tactic that I have seen used many times." Seeing the question in my expression he told me to ask him what ever was on my mind. Deciding that it might be now or never, I blurted out what had bothered me for so many years. "Why me? Every summer you were around and I was the one you followed, volunteered to help, and chatted at until you drove me nuts. I was a random teenager living on your aunt and uncles street, so why me?" Getting a faraway look in his eyes he answered "Because it was the only way we could safely see you and have any kind of friendship without endangering all of our lives. You see, the aunt and uncle we were visiting were your parents and I am really one of your cousins. Gregory Roberts is one of those roles in your life predominantly played by my older brother Nick. Really, I am Zach Ryder but I was the kid sometimes." Stunned, I took the seat opposite of him and simply stared at him. "My point here is to show you that we have been playing random roles in your life for a long time and it is finally safe for us to start showing you that we never abandoned you, we just hid in plain sight." He waited until I remembered my errands, then he escorted me out to the sidewalk and went on his own way. In a cloud of memories I realized that I had played baseball and been assisted with my chores by my cousins. Even though the very actions endangered their lives I was pleased to know that they had put forth the effort to keep in contact.

*******

Another kid was one I had worked with for a semester in college. He was a child prodigy in science, but needed some tutoring in math. I suspected he didn't need the tutoring so much as a friend, but I played along anyway.

I was walking Satchmo in the park when a Frisbee landed by us only to be retrieved by a friendly Bernese Mountain Dog. Hearing a whistle and dropping the Frisbee, she sat down beside me and held out a paw to shake with a bark of greeting. Surprised, and amused, I shook her paw while asking her where her owner was. She turned her head back over her shoulder and woofed at a familiar figure heading our direction. Smiling broadly, her owner introduced himself as Ezekiel Leland, or Zeke, and his dog Amity. He reminded me of the semester when I had tutored him in math and told me that he was a doctor with multiple majors in medicine and served in the Air Force. In turn, I told him about the FBI White Collar division and hinted that a lot of people from my past had been showing up lately to reveal that they were more than they appeared to be. With a wink and a bow "You have me pegged Peter. I am one of the quads, but I'll leave you to guess which one." Sighing, I told him I don't remember enough about them to even begin to guess. His expression turned dejected but understanding. "I know Peter, I have been watching and waiting for the day that you will remember me, and when you do, we have a lot of catching up to do." Staring at him, I wondered if he was Nick, but if he was Nick why all the subterfuge? Why not simply tell me that he was the quad that I most wished to see? We briefly chatted over a few general subjects before it was time for me to get going home. I asked if he would like to come along, but he declined saying that as much as he enjoyed El's cooking and our company he had a previous engagement he needed to be attending. Saying goodbye we went our separate ways. As I was walking back home a thought struck knocking my breath away. What if Nick wouldn't tell me who he was because he was mad at me? It had been my job to protect him the night I was taken, but instead he had been injured trying to protect me. Feeling as though a chain had wrapped around my heart weighing it down, and the rest of me with it, I continued home.

*******

Through these meeting I got the impression that the quads wanted me to know that they had been there for me through the years. Bryce had told me that he had been around, but I think they wanted to show me how they had been around. What better way than to introduce their various characters before revealing that they were played by one or more quads? I decided that if Nick wanted me to know how he had been around in the past before he showed who he was playing now, then maybe he wasn't mad at me. This loosened the chain, but I still felt guilty for letting him down.


	13. Excerpt 13 - Dreams in Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 15 except where Peter is talking about his mind remembering in his dreams but he doesn't remember when he wakes up in the morning. This an accumulation of pieces I wrote in the effort to get what I wanted said with an addition of some actual dreams. (Warning: there is mention of child harm to Nick).

Finally my memory began returning in snippets of information here and there. Still, the majority of my childhood remained like a fragmented image with only a few random pieces filled in. At night my dreams brought those missing pieces floating to the surface and sometimes I woke up with a smile while other times I woke up in a cold sweat. The essence of the dreams varied from playing with Nick and other family members to the last time I knowingly saw him severely injured the night I was taken (despite his efforts to minimize what happened, my subconscious knew better). Through it all no details ever really stuck. When I woke up I knew that I had dreamed about Nick getting hurt on one of many occasions, it was like reliving the situation all over again, but I didn't remember the dream. No matter how hard I tried it was like going to sleep and watching my life play out in vivid detail only to wake up to the fractured image again. It was almost more frustrating than it was when my memory was a completely blank because the past was being dangled in front of me only to be taken away when I tried to grab it.

*******

_The hall is white and I am sitting in an uncomfortable chair, watching as people walk passed me one way or the other. There are people sitting next to me and eventually I am called into a hospital room. Despite my efforts, the people around me are blurry, but one part stands out clearly in my mind. "He is your God-brother… do you want to hold him?" I look down and a newborn has been placed in my arms. Tiny fingers wrap around my index finger and tiny, brilliant blue eyes open to look up at me. A feeling of protectiveness envelopes me and I wish I knew who this little guy was._

_I blink, and suddenly the baby in my arms is replaced by a toddler. He is cuddled into me in a set of comfortable pajamas. His eyes are drooping and a huge yawn split his face, but he refuses to let me pass him to his mom to put him to bed. Eventually, I give in and he agrees to allow me to tuck him in for the night. Moving to get up, I am suddenly unable to move and the boy is gone._

_A small boy stands in front of me while a group of large men loom threateningly over the little fellow. He says something, which sets them to laughing, before he begins to pick his way through a series of traps. Helplessly, I watch as he progresses towards the end and then, to my horror, a hook swings out and catches him through the shoulder. He is swinging back and forth with the men laughing about him "hanging around until the cops come."_

Suddenly, I am sitting ram rod straight in bed with my heart pounding and sweat pouring off of me. I don't remember why I am sitting up or what scared me so bad for my heart to be racing. Elizabeth is still asleep so I settle back and try to relax. Slowly, I drift off to sleep again and the next dream takes over.

_A boy is trailing behind me with a baseball and glove. When I look back, I catch him mimicking me and he grins proudly at me like I am the hero big brother he admires. I try to walk fast and lose the boy, but he simply picks up his pace as well. At the park he tries to play baseball with me and the other older boys, but since he is too small we try to get rid of him. He refuses to leave so we give him the task of fetching the balls to get rid of him short term. As a ball flies to the other side of the field, he chases, and the dream transitions._

_It seems like the same kid is sitting up to the table beside me with a book open. I can hear myself telling him to solve a complicated math problem as I am trying to teach him how to do it for himself. Then, I hear his little voice asking me questions in an attempt to understand. Looking over at him, I see that same expression of admiration that I had seen before as he walked behind me to the park. Before my mind can contemplate this similarity, the dream transitions again._

_A few years have passed and the kid is now a teenager. We are working together in the office and he is consulting on my case with me. He has been dubbed "whiz kid," because he is a child prodigy and already a doctor and consultant. This reminds me of Neal, because he is a very smart consultant as well. I turn around and it isn't the kid anymore, but now Neal is standing in front of me. For some reason, I think that he is the same kid I have been watching grow up. Then, as I watch, Neal transforms into a younger version of himself again and I am looking at Shield._

I wake up and find myself reflecting on something, but I don't remember what. Instinct tells me that I was just remembering things, and perhaps I figured a few things out, but with no idea what I had dreamt about it was useless to dwell on it. Looking at the clock, it is still early, but I doubt that I will get anymore sleep. Time to get up and get something done I guess.

*******

Elizabeth was great support through all of this. She would let me discuss my frustration when I knew I had dreamed of something important that I couldn't remember, woke me up when I was trapped in another nightmare, tried to help me remember incidents she had been present for, provided a silent comfort when I was distressed and didn't know why, and really was the rock I needed. The situation couldn't have been easy on her but she understood what I was going through having just gone through the situation herself in regaining her memories. Still, the emotional roller coaster this was putting her through and my difficulty being unable to share in a past we had in common, because I couldn't remember, were more reasons I just wanted my memories back.

At work things were going even worse. I removed myself from the active side of the field on a temporary basis in order to avoid putting anyone in danger on the off chance that I would suddenly remember something at the wrong time. What memories I had recalled had brought reactions and I didn't want to risk anything happening to my team because I suddenly couldn't handle the situation in front of me since my mind was in a past situation.

Jones and Diana were great support as usual. They understood that I needed to regain my footing before I continued to walk into unknown territory so they let me do what I needed too and made sure that the office kept running smoothly in the meantime. As a result, I was up to date on the field work and kept in the loop just in case I was able to help, our solve rate didn't waiver much in only dropping a little (understandable with everything we had going), and I was in the loop on the latest theories concerning Caffrey and Shield. The rest of the office went about their duties, gossiped about Caffrey conspiracies, and tried not to let the unusual atmosphere around the office get to them.

Really, I couldn't ask for a better support system from my coworkers or my family.

*******

After a weekend of dreams and waking up in cold sweats every night I went into the office running late and looking like I was closer to sleep walking than awake. There were dark shadows under my eyes, my eye lids kept drooping, yawns hit every few minutes, and my walk felt like it took herculean effort just to pick up my feet to swing them forward and drop them. I knew generally what to expect from the office but it was Shield's reaction to my dreams and obvious sleeplessness that surprised me.

Without any possible way of knowing, he told me what was going on and what I was dreaming about, something I didn't even know.

"You're dreaming of the night when you were taken. It is the only situation that was left unresolved to your knowledge with a person's life literally hanging in the balance. When you wake up you probably don't remember what was so distressing, just that something was very wrong so you can't get back to sleep."

Having no idea what he really looked like (he had been changing up his appearance enough to be anybody), or who he was beyond the code name of Shield, I was not in the mood for him to be telling me what was going on in my head, so I snapped at him. "What do you know of my past, I don't even know who you are?" (The question of why he didn't come out and state his identity was left unspoken). Out of the corner of my eye I saw him wince and heard his sigh. For an awkward moment we both just stood there, then he began answering my questions.

"It has been a long time Peter. You haven't yet met me for who I really am, because I am still introducing you to who I have been."

My head jerked up in surprise and my attention was entirely focused on the man in front of me.

"Our meetings have ranged from old acquaintances randomly passing in the park (said with a smirk and a glint of humor) to long term friends you have known for years. I have known you all of my life so your past is my shared history more often than you think. For instance, do you remember that child prodigy that consulted on a few of your cases back before you were a part of White Collar? Since he was just a teenager everyone ignored his name and simply called him "whiz kid." You have emailed him for assistance in cases off and on for years, even to help you catch Caffrey. The ironic part is that I am that whiz kid as well as the director of Operation Caffrey so, in a way, I helped you catch myself. There are a few roles left to be revealed and I look forward to when you remember the past, but until you remember and connect the dots I want you to remember this. I am perfectly fine, have been here all along, and am waiting for my Deus Irmán to remember me. Also, what happened wasn't your fault. You wish you could have done more, but you couldn't have. Guilt is part of what brings those nightmares on, I know, because I fought them for years from the other side of the situation."

Feeling floored, for a moment, I simply continued to stare at him. My mind was processing what he had said, but I wasn't firing on all cylinders.

Working through the process I put together that he was Nick, he wasn't mad at me, but felt guilty for failing me, and he was introducing me to who he was only at a slower rate than I expected. The chain fell from around my heart and I wished to remember him even more.

"From what I have heard and read you did way more than what was expected of you. There was no reason for you to feel guilt either. As for me remembering, you're probably right as to the content of my dream. My memory is a fractured image with pieces filling in, but I look forward to when the puzzle is whole again."

We shared looks of understanding before I continued up to my desk and he returned to his. It was going to be a long day, but I felt like maybe it wouldn't be as bad as it had appeared it would be before our conversation.


	14. Excerpt 14 - Renovations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elizabeth buys a building to use for hosting events and this is Peter telling the story of how it gets to be renovated as a special gift from the Ryders. (Excerpt from Chapter 15).

*******

With our family coming back together and our life settled in New York, Elizabeth decided to purchase an old building with great potential. She got a loan to make the purchase and the plan was for renovations to update the place before she would use it as a location to host her events as well as rent out for other events when she didn’t need it.

My first trip to see the place after she had purchased it I had Shield with me. We were headed back to the office to wrap up for the day after completing a case and since we were in the neighborhood I decided to show him. As we walked into the building I could see the creative side of his mind going to work cleaning and decorating the place up. It was no surprise that he could see the potential and value of the place better than I could. What did surprise me though was when he asked if he could take care of the renovations. “As a surprise for Elizabeth?” I was unsure about allowing him his request. After all El had her heart set on working to get it just right but I had no idea how she was ever going to get the Nicholas and Neal effects she wanted. The two were mysterious, famous, and very expensive artist so there was no way we could ever afford to have any of their works. Falling for his puppy dog expression, that only got more effective after I learned that he was my cousin, I gave in and allowed him to handle renovating the building. There was the condition that I told Elizabeth about him handling the renovation though, so I wouldn’t have to lie to my wife. He agreed and I gave him my key.

For weeks I watched as Shield came into the office with a tired air as if he was up late into the night working on the renovations. I tried to talk to him about taking it easy but he would never let me even begin to go into conversation about the renovation. If he even suspected that I was driving for information or hinting for him to get some sleep he would respond “We are all pitching in as a family effort and it will not take us long. Don’t worry about anything as we will handle it all.”

After a while Elizabeth and I were getting impatient as we wanted to know what was being done. The place had been quite the mess before they went to work so even just cleaning the place up would have made a huge difference. However, knowing that the men who had played Caffrey as well and the director of the operation who designed a good deal of the character were involved led us to believe that a simple cleanup was far from all that would be done. We were right.

A week before the project was expected to be completed Nick requested that El and I clear our schedule for the following Saturday night as we had a date. Suspecting that it was coming on time for the reveal I texted El who promised to “clearly mark it on the calendar.”

-*-

The next Saturday night a car pulled up in front of our house to pick us up. We had been instructed to be dressed up so we walked out with El in a gorgeous dress while I was wearing a tux (per instructions). Shield was our driver and he insisted that we wear blindfolds before he took us to the building. Upon arrival we were escorted inside where we were allowed to remove the blind folds. Elizabeth gasped and stared around in open mouthed wonder. I was right behind her unable to take it all in at once as the place was amazing.

We were in the main room that was where the events would be held. The walls had large but elegant trim highlighting the old architecture of the building and framing huge murals that El described as “exquisite.” Hanging from the ceiling were master pieces of colored glass and metal that spread light into every corner of the room while being just right not to harm the artwork. Eventually looking down we discovered that the floor was rather simplistic in comparison being only hardwood, but it was still full of grains and such a warm color that it fit right into the environment. Finally our eyes settled on the fancy table set up in the middle of the room with a large screen set up behind it. Moving to the candle lit table El and I sat down while the lights dimmed down to create a romantic atmosphere. Shield and Nicky assumed the roles of our servers presenting us with our drinks and the promise that our food would be along shortly. In the mean time we were to enjoy the first stage of a home movie that would walk us through the renovations.

The screen came to life with the image of Shield showing that he had come back that very evening after I gave him my key. He took a short period of time to walk us through and show us what needed to be repaired before the fun could start. When there was a pause we looked around to see that Nicky was setting a basket of bread for us to eat as we watched and waited for the next part of the meal. Playing the video again we were presented with Shield as he started setting up cameras in various locations around the room before other people started showing up. Once everyone seemed to be accounted for the tasks were divided out and the work began.

Suddenly we had a mix of a musicals and a series of interviews. Nick went to work with the other quads as they swept up the dirt and mess in the main room. However, they weren’t just sweeping as they broke into song with the occasional dance move thrown in with a twirl of the broom. This was followed by a series of a couple of interviews with family members telling us things they possibly couldn’t say to our faces, but wanted us to know anyway. Meanwhile in the background we could still see various views of people doing the surface clean up.

There was another pause as the soup and salad course was delivered before we went back to watching. After a while we had finished the course we were working on and the content changed a little bit. Instead of cleaning they started to do repairs. We watched as the activities switched over to replacing pipes, fixing electrical, and generally replacing or repairing everything that needed it. When the repairs were finished we had another timely pause as one course was cleared away and the main course brought out.

The interviews and musical atmosphere continued and the so called fun began. We watched as the ceiling was painted, the lights installed, the trim put up, and the floors got sanded down. When everything else was done except for the places where the murals were located we were introduced to the artists. Two men stepped in front of the camera with their identifying features covered which had El squealing in excitement. I have no idea how they pulled it off, but apparently our family was able to get Nicholas and Neal to come down in person to paint the murals on the walls. We got to watch the most mysteriously famous artists of our time work methodically around the very room we were sitting in and paint the mural that surrounded us.

With the dessert we watched the final portion of the recordings. After the murals were completed we were given a virtual tour of the entire premises which proved to be more subtle but just as fantastic as the main room. In closing we were given one performance with all participating somehow and the last reveal. Moving in front of the camera Nate said that he wanted to introduce us to the artists behind Operation Caffrey. Shocked we watched as Nicholas and Neal stepped out again and began to remove the stuff that hid their identities. When they finished we found ourselves looking at our cousins Nick and Neal. The two wrapped up the recording with a final message. “We have waited a long time to tell you who we are, and we have been wanting to openly be involved in your lives. Thank you for letting us have this opportunity, we love you” and the screen faded to black.


	15. Excerpt 15 - Counting Caffreys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 15 except where the Caffrey Five are messing with the heads of the other guests told by Peter. (An extended version of the summary prior to the Caffrey reveal).

*******

The party seemed to be going well and the picture that was being donated had been revealed. I was standing in a group of people from the office, particularly Diana, Jones, and Blake, when one of the Camden twins walked up to us dressed as Caffrey. We tried to figure out which twin we were speaking too, but he wouldn’t inform us of his identity. Instead of a prolonged game of guessing, we decided to simply call him Caffrey. He smirked at us and went along with it.

We had seen him looking at the picture, so we began trying to get him to fess up about how he was portrayed in the image. As usual, Caffrey cleverly avoided our efforts and instead deflected our questions back at us. No one fell for it, so we eventually reached a stale mate. Deciding to duck out, Caffrey asked if anyone was thirsty. Taking the requests, he went to retrieve drinks for the group.

For several minutes we stood around chatting before we began to wonder where Caffrey had gotten off to with the drinks. Then we saw him walking our way from the opposite direction with no drinks in sight. He walked up to us and began the whole conversation of how we were depicted in the picture all over again. For a moment we were confused, but then we decided that we had the other Caffrey. Going through the conversations again we came to the same stalemate conclusion as we had with the other twin and we still had no idea who we were talking too. This twin also chose to duck out, but he used the ruse of going for snacks as an escape.

It had been quite a while since we had seen the first Caffrey and we were really wondering where he had gotten off to with the drinks. We started looking around the room when we spotted one of them standing around holding a mini Caffrey. Our laughter drew his attention, so he grinned, and came over to talk to us. He introduced us to Ben Camden, or for the evening, mini Caffrey. The toddler had a mini Devore Suit, matching tie, the dress shoes, and a little Fedora at a cocky tilt on his head. With bright blue eyes and a charming smile the little guy introduced himself as “Mini Caffrey” and reached out to shake each of our hands.

I was surprised when the little guy put his arms out to me and leaned towards me. As Caffrey passed him to me, I found some part of my mind remembering that I had once had another little boy reach out to me in the same fashion. A sad expression crossed my face as the memories played out in my mind. Mini Caffrey reached up and put his hands on either side of my face. “You miss Nick don’t you?” Surprised I answered. “Probably, I just had a memory of another little boy reaching out to me the way you just did. I don’t know which one it was though.” He nodded with a sureness that was adorable on his little face. “Nick, he is the one who talks about you all of the time. I can’t wait until you remember so that neither of you look so sad.”

Dumb founded, I simply stared at the kid. Ben was surprisingly articulate with quite the vocabulary for such a little toddler. On top of that, he had mentioned something I hadn’t thought about yet. For as much as I missed Nick, the kid I couldn’t fully remember, he must miss me so much more as he has every memory stored in that perfect memory of his. After reflecting on that thought for a moment, I felt even sadder that I hadn’t considered his feelings as I was so caught up in trying to remember my own past.

My focus returned to the situation around me as Ben said, “I’m sorry Peter, I shouldn’t have asked you to hold me, but I wanted to meet you after hearing so much about you.” Looking at the tears welling up in his eyes I pulled him into a hug and said, “Thank you, I have another memory and a perspective that I hadn’t thought of yet. I am glad to meet you and look forward to getting to know you in the future little Caffrey.” A little pair of arms wrapped around my neck as a little head cuddled into my neck for a moment.   After Ben had cleared his eyes he pulled back and smiled at me, a smile I couldn’t help but return. “I see why he likes to talk about you so much. I look forward to getting to know you too Peter.”

Turning to the Caffrey twin he had come with, little Ben held out his arms in request to be passed back. Once he was back, he whispered something in his ear and the two shared a conspiratorial look at me. Curious, I simply looked back at them, silently asking to be brought in on the joke. Caffrey answered my look. “Oh don’t worry Peter, he just wants to go find Nick so that he can tell him that he helped you to remember something.” With huge grins at my expression the two walked away.

Leaving me to my internal contemplation, the agents I was standing with carried on a conversation around me and gave me time to pull myself together again.

As I was beginning to refocus on the conversation around me another Caffrey approached us and asked us if we were interested in drinks as he had gotten ahold of a tray full. “Weren’t you going to get drink twenty minutes ago?” Blake asked him. With a confused look Caffrey replied, “I only got here about ten minutes ago so I have no idea what you are talking about. I simply noticed that you were all talking and no one had a drink, so I thought that you might be a bit thirsty.”

His innocent expression threw us off for a moment as we contemplated whether or not he was joking with us, or if there was something bigger going on. We had talked to two Caffreys who had left to get food or drink, there was Caffrey and mini Caffrey, and now we had another Caffrey who seemed to be walking up to us for the first time this evening. It appeared that the twins were pulling off some kind of prank by taking advantage of being twins. I had forgotten what it was like to have the quads gang up like this and I had never experienced it with the Camden twins.

While the others were taking drinks, I was rolling my eyes at him and said, “We’re at a disadvantage for this twins switching places thing you know. None of us have seen the two of you together and I haven’t knowingly seen Neal in a long time.” Caffrey’s eyes were dancing with humor and for some reason I found myself feeling like there was something more going on than simply two people switching places, but what, was beyond me at the moment. Accepting my drink, I decided to simply play along for the moment and so I joined into the conversation as we had a third try at getting any hint as to which twin we were speaking with. We continued to attempt subtle interrogation until Caffrey was called away by someone else.

After Caffrey left, our little group shared a look and silently decided to try and figure out what was going on before they revealed what they were up too. We knew that there was a good chance that we wouldn’t be able to figure it out, but we really wanted to take a shot and try any way. Our next chance at questioning came up just after we had decided to try and beat the reveal.

Caffrey approached with another tray full of drinks for us, but was dismayed to see that his effort was wasted because we already had drinks. “Why did you get drinks when I was bringing them?”

Grinning at each other we answered. “Actually, you did bring us drinks.” “Yeah, Caffrey you brought us a tray and cracked a line about having just arrived and seeing us talking without drinks.” “You were so kind to bring us the exact drinks we requested too.” “How many times did you come talk to us before you decided to bring the drinks back with you?”

He looked confused. “I went to get drinks and had to wait while they were brought out from the back. After I got the drinks I brought them over to you.”

Chuckling I answered, “Caffrey the area for the drinks is well stocked and a group twice this size couldn’t empty them out so I know you weren’t waiting for the drinks to come in from the back.”

Smoothly he covered his tracks. “Elizabeth asked for a lot of the stock to be moved to the back.”

“No I didn’t. I have no idea what you boys are up too, but don’t use me as your cover story because I watched you simply stand and watch the other Caffrey talk to them repeatedly.” Elizabeth stepped forward and rebuffed this excuse for me.

With a grin and twinkling eyes Caffrey gave us pause, “Are you sure of that? It has been a long time and our games have advanced a lot since we were kids.” Whistling merrily, he simply walked away before we could come up with a response.

Next, Shield walked up to us and asked us if we had looked at the picture yet. Those who had got amused expressions on their faces but refused to talk about it. Instead, they decided to see if Shield would slip and give away any information about how Caffrey was represented. He seemed to be amused by our efforts to ask someone involved with Operation Caffrey for inside information. “That would be giving the fun away. You haven’t even come close to figuring out what is going on and we are having too much fun messing with you at the moment. The reveal will be in a little bit and after that you can see for yourself what we mean by the depiction being revealing.” With that cryptic answer he tipped his fedora at us and walked away. Watching him weave through the crowd it suddenly hit me that he was dressed exactly like the Caffreys and mini Caffrey.

This continued all evening. A Caffrey would talk to us and leave for some reason. Then a few minutes later the other Caffrey would show up and play a role. The way they acted would have made us think that several of the Caffreys talked to us for the first time, but that wasn’t possible. They were dozens of times and there were only two twins playing the roles. Conversing with other guest I noticed that they were playing the same game with everyone, but there was a particular attention on the team and me.

I wondered why they felt the need to play the games the way they were. Then it dawned on me. This was the largest family get together that we had had in a long time, which gave them the chance to play the game on family. Also, this was an out of office event with the team together where they could play their switching game on the people they had been playing it on for nearly a decade, without causing trouble on the job. With this revelation I felt a feeling I hadn’t felt in a long time. A feeling of family and friends and the peaceful comfort that they bring.   It was nice to be collected together while we conversed on whatever topic we felt like while trying to unravel the games of the twins. Relaxing, I decided that it didn’t matter if I beat the reveal in figuring out what they were doing, because I knew why.

Finally, it was time for the reveal. Kate walked up and greeted us. We already knew that she was alive, so it wasn’t a big surprise for the others to see her. For me, it was still a bit weird because I had been there and supposedly seen her be blown up. She understood the odd look that flashed a crossed my face as I remembered what had happened. Stepping forward she gave me a hug and said, “We have a lot to talk about and we need to get to know each other for who we really are. Right now though, it is time for the Caffrey reveal.” As she directed me towards the stage a random thought crossed my mind. _Caffrey never came back with the snacks…_


	16. Excerpt 16 - Caffrey Reflections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The picture that is being donated to the office has some interesting points to it. Peter is studying if after the party has ended and is trying to see what has had people talking about it all evening.

*******

After the party cleared I spent some time studying the picture that was being donated to the office. Although it was "White Collar" by Anonymous, I was pretty sure that it was painted by Nicholas and Neal with contributions from the rest of the Caffrey Five. There had been snickers and amused glances my way all evening, but whenever I asked what was so funny everyone told me to take some time studying the picture and I would figure it out. Even Jones and Diana refused to tell me as they joined the rest in "We are not telling a person how they are depicted in the picture until they have seen for themselves."

My first place to look was at my office because I wanted to know what was so funny about how I was depicted. It was an ordinary scene at first glance as I sat working at my desk focused on a file and my computer screen while my FBI mug and the picture of El and I stood by in their usual locations. Checking my tie, my face, and other points I didn't find anything out of the ordinary, and certainly nothing to amuse. Then I noticed the large picture hanging on the wall. They depicted me with the Mario mustache and what I am told is my "classic hands on hips pose" which gave me a comical appearance that looked like I was about to give Caffrey a scolding. (Now that wasn't fair. I have never looked that amusing when I was telling him off). Searching my office over in minute detail I found the second point of amusement in how I was depicted. Underneath my desk my shoes were laid askew as if I had kicked them off and I had the appearance of wiggling my toes, which happened to be wearing a variation of the puppy socks El had bought for me. Shaking my head and chuckling in amused embarrassment I know that I will not only never live those down, but now they are going to be hung on the wall on permanent display.

To distract myself I decided to see what else was done to the rest of the office. Next to my space, Jones was diligently working on a stack of files. On his head he had his Navy hat, from his days in the military, at a jaunty angle that was reminiscent to how Caffrey wore his sometimes. Looking at his desk contents he had pastry carrousel adorning the corner filled with colorful goodies that looked good enough to eat. To the side I could see a flat screen hung on his wall, a gift he had asked for when his was destroyed during a home invasion. Moving on to Diana I found that she was wearing a fluffy white bath robe with a glass of Champaign in one hand and a file in the other as she reclined with her feet up on her desk. Tuned to be in full view she had a pencil sketch of a run down, but somehow beautiful bridge. Looking around the rest of the office Agent Blake had a picture of a Beluga Whale as a token of watching "The Dentist of Detroit" while Agent Westley had a thank you card for doing Caffrey's paperwork. Hanging on the wall, where the painting was going to go, was picture of a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster which was a nod to when Caffrey had the CI off competition. Smiling, I recalled running with Agent Jack Franklin as our CIs competed to use their resources to help us run and keep us safe. (I must admit that I am proud that Caffrey won). There were several other little tributes to jokes and events that made the Caffrey Five officially unofficial members of our team, but I got the feeling that it could take years for us to notice all of the details that had gone into the painting.

In general the picture was a depiction of our day to day activities with humor and personal attributes that would never actually occur. As I was looking at the overall effect I noticed what had brought on the confused expressions before the reveal. The scene had a faint but detailed illustration of the Caffrey Five melded in a crossed the glass of the second level like a reflection with nothing to cast it. The first Caffrey appeared to be dressed to get dirty and was painting on an easel set up in the conference room. A second Caffrey was dressed in black and was standing at the edge of Jones' office reaching past the wall to pick the pocket of the first Caffrey. Third was a Caffrey who was also standing in Jones' office, but he was dressed in an undercover persona showing the second Caffrey his consultants badge. (This one looked like a cop scolding a criminal caught red handed). Standing in my office, the fourth Caffrey was Neal at his finest with the suit, hat, megawatt smile, and the carefree attitude that seemed to dare someone to try and be unaffected by his charm. Finally the fifth was simply seated in front of my desk with an unaffected smile and was showing me the Sheriff's star he had taken from a cereal box at my home shortly after we started working together.

There was something off about the faces so I took a closer look to discover that they were masks painted to look like Caffrey. I guess this was how they decided to sign the painting. The Caffrey Five were depicted in their various characters wearing masks showing that although Neal Caffrey seemed real there was a lot more to him than we had ever guessed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To let everyone know, there is one more chapter to the Ryder Records to be posted next week and two more chapters of Ryder Reviews to be posted during the week days following. With the completion of this series being posted in the next few weeks, I hope that those of you who have been quietly reading will take the time to let me know what you think :D
> 
> Also, with the holiday season coming up I would like to mention that I do work two retail related jobs so life might get more than a little hectic for a while. If I should happen to miss posting on my self appointed day, I will post as soon as I can.


	17. Excerpt 17 - Nick's Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Peter remembers he goes over to see Nick at his place to talk. Nick lets him and shows him around.

*******

I followed my GPS to the edge of the industrial part of town. The building I ended up at was three stories with an industrial air that fit in to its surroundings, but an architectural flair that made is unique.

Approaching I noticed that the first floor had two large garage doors over to one side with a single door on the side that I was approaching. A camera, light, and a two way speaker system were the only means of security and knowing who was at the door that I could see.

Stepping forward I pushed the button and waited for an answer hoping that I wasn't waking him up.

After a moment I could hear a dog bark as a voice answered "Hello, Peter?"

Responding, I confirmed that it was me and asked him if I could come in as we needed to talk.

"I'll be down in a moment to let you in and bring you up."

Shifting in place I waited for him. My stomach seemed to have butterflies but whether it was out of anticipation, nerves, or both was beyond me.

When he opened the door he was wearing basic sweats and an artsy t-shirt with his hair ruffled like he had been playing with Amity.

Grinning at how much he looked like the kid I remembered him as I simply said "It has been a long time Primo-Irmán" and gave him a hug.

After a startled inhilation of air, he hugged me back "That it has Deus Irmán."

Stepping apart after a moment he asked me how long I was staying.

"For awhile, Elizabeth is waiting up for me though."

With a _she wants to know how this goes_ expression he gestured me in and asked if he could show me around on the way up.

Interested, I agreed that we could wait to talk until we got upstairs to his loft.

The first floor, he generally termed as "the garage," housed his car, a sleek motorcycle, and a standard NSA work use SUV with room for more. He pointed to two doors on the other side which functioned as guest rooms of sorts. Having so many spies in the family and as friends he created a place where they could sometimes have a safe place to sleep a few hours before taking off again. Working around to an old working elevator he closed the doors and we rode up to the next level.

Stepping out he showed me his personal art studio where he could paint, scupt, or create what ever came to mind. He also had an office for handling all of his work in medicine, government, and his art. The final area on this floor was set up as an in home aid station so when the spy friends that showed up were hurt he could have the basics on hand to either take care of them on the spot or tide over until they could reach a hospital. He told me that he called this floor his office to separtate it from his official base that was called "Studio." Both locations served as his work spaces, just one was personal while the other was official.

The top floor contained his loft of personal living space. It opened up into a large open concept kitchen, living, and dining space large enough to accomodate a decent group of family and friends and high ceilings that made the room feel huge. To one side he has his bedroom and personal spaces, while the other side had laundry and more guest rooms meant for family and friends who would be staying longer.

Not allowing me to sit down yet, he said there was one more area he wanted to show me. Amity eagerly joined us as we walked up a set of stairs leading up the back wall. Opening the door he showed me to the final space.

He had his own rooftop terrace with a view of the city in one direction and out over the water in the other direction. The space comprised of areas for entertainment, relaxation, and a form of outdoorspace for Amity.

With a grin Nick told me that I was welcome to have his version of capocino in the clouds when ever I wanted to.

Also grinning I replied that he had "at least worked hard and paid for this one so I might as well try it."

Returning down to the main living space we settle in and talked for awhile. As the evening drew into night I reluctantly realized I needed to be going home.

Giving me an out, Nick reminded me that Elizabeth and I also had plenty to talk about since I now could remember the real first time that we had meant. Besides, after spending Saturday with my wife we were invited for breakfast on Sunday morning.

Hearing noises coming from one of the guest rooms I looked puzzled.

Smiling he told me that his sister's were hiding to give us privacy to talk for the first time, but they wanted to meet Elizabeth and I on Sunday before they went back to their own homes.

I responded loud enough for Moriah and Mary to hear as I said that Elizabth and I would be happy to come over and meet them.

Giggles and two "See you then" were the responses.

Chuckling, Nick gestured for me to lead the way back to the elevator and he would show me out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes:  
> Deus Irmán - God Brother  
> Nova-Irmán – Little Brother  
> These are the nicknames that Peter and Nick had for each other in their own code (Galician according to google translate because I can’t do codes).
> 
> Thanks for reading, I'll start Journeys next week and I'll be posting the last two prompts during the week days for the next two weeks. :D


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